In praise of ... the Race Relations Acts

In praise of ... the Race Relations Acts

Wednesday 9 November 2005 21.12 EST
First published on Wednesday 9 November 2005 21.12 EST

In a week in which there was more bad news - this time from France - about race relations, there was one event in London that suggested not everything is hopeless. We still have a long way to go in creating the community cohesion that early social reformers envisaged, but we have made progress.

For those who doubt it, a television clip which the Commission for Racial Equality showed during its party this week to celebrate the 1965 Race Relations Act should change their mind. It was made in 1963 and involved a BBC interview with the chairman of the Bristol Omnibus Company, which was refusing to employ ethnic minority staff. His defence of the company's employment policy could not have been more blatant: "We have quite a number of female conductresses who are very proud of their jobs here and I am afraid if we did start engaging coloured people while we could still get white people, then a lot of these white females would be leaving their jobs for other work in the city." There followed a four-month boycott of Bristol buses, which succeeded in ending the overt discrimination.

Paul Stephenson, a handsome black youth worker in 1963, helped organise the Bristol boycott. He was the guest speaker at this week's party. To much applause, he described what life was like then. From rooms to let to jobs, "coloureds" were barred. Laws not only open up opportunities - for better jobs, housing and schools - but help change attitudes as well as behaviour. The 1965 Act should be celebrated.